A Light in the Darkness
by RegalStarlight
Summary: At the height of her reign as the Evil Queen, Regina recognizes her soul mate's tattoo on a thief whose execution she has already ordered. In a rare act of mercy, she lets him escape. But now that they've met, their paths continue to cross, both in the Enchanted Forest and in a Storybrooke where neither of them has any memory of the other.
1. Chapter 1

Regina did her best impression of her mother, holding her head high and her back straight, looking down her nose at the prisoner the guards had thrown to the ground at her feet, with a cold and emotionless expression that revealed nothing.

He glared at her. His eyes were a clear shade of blue, and he wasn't bad to look at. In fact, he was quite handsome, for a peasant.

That last bit was wrong. Regina knew it was. The love of her life had been a peasant. But she couldn't let her weaknesses slip through in public.

"You tried to rob me, thief?" she demanded.

He chuckled. It was not a happy sound, but rather, the laugh of a man who would break if he didn't somehow find humor in his situation. She recognized the weakness at once. Her temper flared up, and she lunged toward him, grabbing him by the throat and hauling him to his feet, using her magic to lift him more than her physical strength. They were eye-to-eye now.

"Answer me!" she snarled.

"Yes," he gasped, choking as she tightened her magical grip on his throat. "Not that it matters if I confess, because you'll just kill me either way."

Regina smiled coldly. She might not like everything about being the queen, but she liked the power. She liked watching the people who dared to cross her squirm. She would never – never – be powerless again.

Then she let her grip break, and he collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. She turned to the guards.

"Take him to the dungeon. He dies tonight."

But as they led him away, she caught a glimpse of a torn sleeve. Ink on skin. A tattoo she thought she would never see again.

Her eyes widened.

Her heart skipped a beat.

She watched as her guards dragged her soul mate off to her dungeon, and for a moment, it all seemed so surreal. She almost felt eighteen again, seeing him for the first time, before reality came crashing back down on her. A flicker of fear in her chest betrayed her as she tried to steel herself for what she had already decided to do.

And the Evil Queen stood there wondering what might have been.

* * *

She was going to kill him. What would it look like if the Evil Queen changed her mind once she had already sentenced a man to death? And if anyone found out or even suspected why, they would know her weakness. She couldn't afford to be weak.

Still, she found herself down in the dungeons, dismissing the guards, alone with the prisoner glaring at her from behind the bars.

"What do you want with me?" he asked.

"Oh, I merely came to let you know how well the execution plans are coming along," she told him, keeping her voice cold and devoid of emotion. "You're lucky, thief. I could have you burned alive, but I've decided to be merciful and hang you instead."

"Ah, that's mercy, is it?" he asked. "Not quite my definition of the word."

It wasn't mercy. It was fear. Fear that when the time came, she wouldn't be able to look at the man who Tinkerbell had thought was her soul mate and throw a fireball to end his life. No one would suspect a hanging, but if they saw even a moment's weakness from their queen …

"If you wanted to live, you shouldn't have robbed me, thief," she said.

"Why?" he asked. "What need do you have for these riches when the common folk are starving?"

That was a good question, and one Regina had asked herself many times. What good were riches when her beloved stable boy was dead and the simple life she wanted was gone forever?

"Who are you, thief?" she asked. "What's your name?"

"And why should I answer you, _Your Majesty_?" From his tone, she got the impression he was mocking her with the title.

"Well, let me put it to you this way," said Regina, pacing back and forth in front of his cell. "You know I have magic."

"I gathered that, yes."

"Which means that I can make sure your execution is quick and painless, or I can draw it out and make you suffer. It's your choice."

He was silent for a moment. She watched him, standing tall even behind the bars of his cell, thinking it over. Then: "Robin of Locksley."

"Robin of … you mean you're Robin Hood?" she asked with a wild laugh. "Oh, this is better than I imagined. I've captured _Robin Hood_!"

A little voice in the back of her head said, _Robin Hood is your soul mate. Isn't that amazing?_ But she ignored that voice. It was just a distraction. She turned to leave, but he spoke again.

"Wait. Don't go."

"Why not?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder. "There's nothing more to say."

"I want to ask a favor," he said.

"What could I possibly do for you?" she asked. "I'm not about to let you go, if that's what you think."

"I don't expect you to," he said. "But I have a son, only a year old, and his mother is dead. I know that you're searching for the Merry Men. I want you to promise that if you find them, you'll have mercy on him, at least. It's not his fault who his parents were."

In spite of herself, Regina felt a twinge of pity. No, it was never anyone's fault who their parents were, was it? And her soul mate's child … even if she couldn't spare Robin's life, surely …

"I don't make a habit of killing orphaned toddlers," she said bluntly. "They may call me the Evil Queen, but even I have standards."

Another thought occurred to her as she walked away: his mother is dead. Maid Marian was dead, and Robin might still be single. Maybe there was a chance …

No. There wasn't a chance. A good man like him would never love the Evil Queen. But still, as she walked away, she flicked her wrist and unlocked the door to his cell. If he got away … well, then it could be the guards' fault.

* * *

Twenty-eight years later, in Storybrooke, Regina Mills walked into The Merry Outdoorsman, the local sports and camping equipment shop. A blue-eyed man with sandy hair and a nametag that said Robert Locksley greeted her.

"Welcome to The Merry Outdoorsman," he said. "How can I help you today?"

"My son, Henry, has been begging me to take him camping for months," said Regina. "And I really don't know the first thing about it, so …"

"Not to worry," he said. "We'll help you out."

He held out his hand for her to shake, and she noticed a tattoo of a lion on his wrist. It seemed familiar, somehow, but that couldn't be right. She hadn't seen it anywhere before in her life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Enchanted Forest**

"Did you do it?" Little John asked when Robin came back the next day. "You're not dead. That means it worked, right?"

Robin shook his head. His friend noticed how tired and shocked he looked.

"So the queen lives," said Little John.

Robin nodded. "I convinced her I was just there to steal from her. She didn't suspect an assassination. But I was sentenced to death."

"You escaped?" asked Will Scarlet, their newest recruit.

"No. She let me go."

That got him a moment of shocked silence and half a dozen jaws hanging open.

"Okay, just let me make sure I'm getting this right," said Little John. "The Evil Queen let you go?"

"Yes. I don't know why. I just know that she came to speak with me, and when she left, the door to my cell wasn't locked. It's probably a trap. I almost didn't come back, in case I was leading her to you, but …"

His gaze drifted to Roland, who was asleep in Friar Tuck's arms.

"I had to risk it."

"You can try again," said Will Scarlet. "You can still avenge Marian's death."

Robin nodded. But what he didn't tell them was the he wasn't sure he wanted to anymore. The queen had been everything he expected: angry, vicious, and undeniably evil. And yet, something within him didn't want to hurt her now that he had seen the way her eyes softened when he mentioned his son. That part of him was an idiot begging for another death sentence, and he knew it. But it was there nonetheless.

* * *

 **Storybrooke**

Regina had never met anyone quite like Robert Locksley before. It was easy to guess, of course, who he had been in their world. She had never met Robin Hood, but with a name like that and a shop called The Merry Outdoorsman, there was only one person he could be. She would have expected the famous thief to be … well, dirtier. He looked and acted like a gentleman, albeit a rugged outdoorsy type of gentleman. Perhaps the curse had improved him. Or perhaps … well, it didn't really matter. He had sold her a tent and some camping equipment, and that was the extent of his role in her life. The queen didn't have time for a common thief, even if the queen was now a small-town mayor and the thief worked in retail.

That night at dinner, she told Henry that she had bought their camping equipment, and he gave her a long, hard look that made her feel like he knew something she didn't.

"Who sold it to you?"

"His name was Robert Locksley."

With a sly smile, Henry asked, "What did you think of him?"

"He was nice, I suppose," said Regina. "Why? Does it matter?"

As he shrugged and continued to pick at his lasagna, Regina realized what this might be about.

"Henry, are you trying to find me a boyfriend?" The words sounded silly as they came out, but he didn't deny it. He just shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of lasagna.

"Answer me, Henry."

He turned and glared at her, and she couldn't understand the weird mix of emotions in his eyes.

"Haven't you ever wanted love?"

"I love you," Regina said. "I don't need any other kind of love, and a boyfriend is just not going to happen. Ever. So if you're looking for a father figure, I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere."

She might have been too harsh with her words, because his eyes grew sad, and he turned away, going back to his lasagna in silence.

A few days later, he disappeared.

* * *

He came back with a blonde woman who he claimed was his birth mother, a woman in a leather jacket who tossed her precious son away when he was just a baby and had the audacity to demand to know whether Regina loved him. Whether his mother, who helped him with his math homework and soothed his fevers and woke up in the middle of the night to comfort him if he had a bad dream, loved him. Regina stared at her, seething with anger, imagining the fireball she would throw at this insolent stranger if she had her magic again.

"Of course I love him."

And of course, it wouldn't change Emma Swan's decision to stay.

* * *

Regina flipped through the pages of the storybook, and the familiar story unfolded before her. Snow White. The poisoned apple. The curse. But there was another story, one that she didn't remember and could hardly believe was true. The story of a lion tattoo and a love that was almost – almost, but not quite – strong enough to overcome evil. The story of soul mates. And when she saw how it ended, her heart nearly stopped.

When she saw what she did – and what she couldn't do – she slammed the book shut with tears in her eyes.

It couldn't be.

But something in her gut told her it was.

She sent Henry off to school and drove down to The Merry Outdoorsman. An enormous man with a scraggly brown beard stood behind the counter, his nametag reading "John Little". Ha. It was obvious who he was.

"Where is Rob – Robert Locksley?" she demanded, almost asking for Robin Hood before she caught herself. "Is he working today?"

Little John nodded. "He's around here somewhere. Hey, Rob! ROB!"

Robin – Robert – appeared from across the little store, near an aisle of fishing gear. His eyes lit up when he saw her. He looked just like the man in the book, the man she had supposedly … no. It wasn't real. It was some sort of horrible trick, and even if it was real, what now? She had made her choice.

But maybe Storybrooke was a second chance.

"Hello," she said. As she approached him, she felt like a nervous teenager. "I wanted to talk to you about my camping trip with my son. Maybe you could give me some recommendations on where to go?"

"Of course, Milady," he said. Just as if he was in the Enchanted Forest, except that there, he would have had to call her Your Majesty.

She listened as he told her about a place in the woods where he liked to take his son camping, and she smiled. A part of her wondered if Henry even cared about going camping at all, or if it was all about that book and getting her to meet Robin Hood again. But that didn't really matter. To her surprise, she was glad she had met him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Storybrooke**

Regina felt as though she was living a double life, even more than usual. How else to describe coming home from the store where the man who used to be Robin Hood worked, with her heart as light as a teenager's on her first date, only to find her son pouring over that book full of awful truths and looking at her like she was … well, the Evil Queen?

If Robin knew, he would never forgive her. If the curse was broken, she couldn't count on him to protect her. She would die.

She wondered if Henry knew that when he talked about his birth mother being the Savior. He had read the book. He knew that defeated villains didn't live happily ever after. But maybe that didn't matter to him at all.

Well, that was a cheerful thought. But whatever Henry might or might not be thinking, there was only one solution: getting the Savior to leave town.

That wasn't going to be easy, she realized one basket of apples, a halfway sawed-down tree, and half a dozen barely-veiled threats later. But when it came time to meet with Robin – Robert – at Granny's to talk about camping, she couldn't help but smile. Even if all he did was give her advice on how to set up a tent.

"Well, I should probably go and check on Henry," she said when they were done. "I'll see you around, I hope?"

He nodded. "Of course. Just give me a call."

They walked out of the diner together, and she turned toward her car, but she had only made it a few steps when she turned and glanced back at him. He was still watching her. That was the only urging she needed to go back and grab him by the collar of his jacket, planting a kiss on his lips. They broke apart, and he stared at her with an expression that could have been any number of things. For a moment, her stomach clenched up, and she thought she had just made a huge mistake. But then he went in for a second kiss.

"Dinner tomorrow?" he asked her when they came up for air.

"Okay," said Regina. "But not at Granny's. We can do better than overpriced frozen lasagna."

He laughed and kissed her again.

It wasn't until later that Regina remembered about True Love's Kiss and its power. And she wasn't sure whether she should be relieved or not that there was no burst of light, no sudden curse-breaking magic. No crowds with torches and pitchforks. But a knot formed in her heart. Could she have one without the other?

* * *

 **Enchanted Forest**

The next time they met, Regina was hunting for Snow White and found Robin Hood instead, sneaking through the woods with his pockets full of gold that was obviously stolen.

"You again?" she laughed. "I would have thought you might have learned to stay far away from me."

"Well, I didn't exactly choose to be in your path, Your Majesty," he told her. The title still came out like a mockery. "It would seem you're rather hard to avoid."

She did a quick scan of the area. They were alone. Without even realizing it, she let out a sigh of relief.

"How is your son?" she asked. The softness of her own voice surprised her.

"He's fine," said Robin. "Thank you. For letting his father live."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Regina. "I didn't let you live. You merely escaped and weren't worth the effort to recapture."

"Really?" asked Robin, raising his eyebrows. His mouth curled into a little smile. "Because my wanted posters are plastered on nearly as many trees as Snow White's, and I know that cell door wasn't open before you came down to speak with me."

Regina's eyes narrowed. "Don't push your luck, thief."

He didn't reply. He just looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite read.

"Get out of here, thief," she told him. "Before I change my mind."

* * *

 **Storybrooke**

Regina smiled over the dinner table at Robin. They had indeed found a better place to eat than Granny's, a local Italian restaurant run by a woman Regina thought might have been a countess in their old world. Robin asked her about Henry, and she told him what she hadn't told anyone else:

"It hasn't been easy since he found out he was adopted. And with his birth mother back in the picture, I'm worried I'm losing him. That's why I'm doing the camping trip. For a chance to connect with him again."

He nodded. Other people might have said the wrong thing and had her choking back tears, or yearning for magic to rip out their hearts. But he held her heart in his hands – metaphorically – and treated it with care.

"It's obvious how much you love your son. I'm sure he can see it, too."

If only he could. If only it was that simple. But instead of sharing her fears, she asked about his son, a much safer topic, and as he told her about Roland, her gaze drifted to the lion tattoo on his arm. And she wondered what kind of a crazy world this was, that she was actually starting to trust pixie dust.

* * *

Meanwhile, across town, Mary Margaret walked into the hospital and sat down by the bed of a coma patient.

"Look, I know this is odd, but I'm doing it for … a friend. So please just bear with me."

And she opened the storybook.


End file.
